Here in mid-Missery, spring brings ticks by the bushel. I got so many ticks on me while cleaning fence rows that I lost track. Usually, I found them before they bit, but I was bitten by at least 3-4 adults and a couple of seed ticks. The seed ticks are nymphs so small that you often mistake them for freckles. Fortunately (I guess), I react to the blasted things so that I get an itchy bump shortly after they attach...so anyway, I know they are there. I ended up with only one bite that seemed to be possibly infected. I developed a big red swollen area around one bite and the doc put me on antibiotics. By later in the summer, the ticks thinned out and I have seen none for the last month or so. They aren't called deer ticks for nothing. On our new place we have lots of deer and lots of ticks. Our old place in town was fenced, and was no longer on a deer migration path, and we had no ticks. This even though we had an outside dog. I don't know which is worse. The ticks bite me. The deer bite my plants. Some deer ticks, BTW, have a white spot on their backs. I can't recall if those are the ones more likely to carry Lime and Lime-related diseases or not.